STOP IT!

[aydee]

Confession. - As far back as I can remember, maybe since I was six , I've been DOING IT.

What you may ask. Well, YOU know what! ..........

...patting double strokes on my thighs, reverse paradiddles on my desk,
tables, steering wheels, Playing imaginary foot flams in work meetings, air hi-hat foot stomps in my car, single strokes with restaurant cutlery ( where the glasses are the cymbals, right ? ), tambourine with dinner plates etc, etc. You know what I'm talking about.

Historically, this has irritated the daylights out of everyone I've ever known.

I've been scolded, yelled at, stared at by Parents, brothers, strangers, friends, school teachers, college profs, girlfriends, librarians, people in restaurants.....

" would you stop doing that " almost feels like my middle name after all these years.

I have tried to supress this urge for years. Unsuccessfully.

The only species that seem relatively immune to this are other MUSICIANS, who hate it as much too, but are somewhat more tolerant and forgiving.

Any others fellow sufferers?

[bobie2000]

i know exactly what your going through

ive been playing for three years and have been tapping on tables, desks, on my handlebars while riding..then yesterday in an english exam i almost got sent out for practicing my doubles and paradiddles on the desk lol

my school is a very musical school, so there is alot of musicians, which means most of the time i get "damn drummers" said to me. but then theres the people who arent musicians and who stare at me with a blank face untill i realise im tapping and i stop

[Ozzy Biz]

Haha, I was tapping the table to "Rock the Casbah" just when I started to read this. I'm a habbitual "tapper" too, it infriates my family and friends to no end! haha

[paracor]

haha, I'm addicted to this too... A colleague once saif he'd punch me if I kept on beating on my desk or with my foot... luckily he did not keep his promise, because I never stopped :D
I just can't help it... :) guess it's the drummers' curse :D

[TitanSound]

I do patterns with my feet even when I am asleep...its drove my ex mental...hence why she is probably my ex :)

[gusty]

at lunchtime at school ill listen to my mp3 and pace around my area and air drum...sometimes with sticks...people have gotten used to it...and the constant tapping, moving of limbs, fingers, toes, anything...i actually find it annoying a lot of the time. near impossible to stop moving atleast something.

[babliku]

Ironically, I don't tap, but when other people do, whether for musical reasons or not, I get extremely irritated. Funny thing is that often these are the same people who don't mind me playing on my practice pad right next to them. I suspect if I was listening to myself practice as a "third person" I'd get pissed off as well haha.

[Mr. Pasquini]

I have undiagnosed RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome...) Everyone hates it, at dinner the house shakes, the car always shakes, I can't sit still... But it's a spot of fun ;)

[DestinationDrumming]

I've tried to stop it but now I find myself grinding my teeth and the dentist has said I really have to stop that too! Seems you can't do anything without someone telling you to stop.

[ron_jacobson]

I get it for feet tapping on the chair mat under my chair.. And clicking my pen at my desk.

Some people just don't get it.....

[wnameth]

i believe i am also somebody with the middle name "stop it"

-Wes

[ZildjianMan1023]

word, i notice as i was reading this i started tapping


happens all the time

i drum on my stomach (im a fairly large guy)

i get to class before i sit down i just tap away

but thats anywhere

[rmandelbaum]

Face it, it's a drummer thing ;-)

[zambizzi]

Any others fellow sufferers?

Ha! My wife and I were having this conversation the other night. I have done this since I was 4 or 5 yrs. old. My mom used to say "what's the matter, do you have some kind of nervous condition!?" - it drove her insane.

Since roughly the same age, I've played the drums on my teeth...by clacking them together to beats. My dentist recently adjusted my bite because he thought my bite was responsible for not having any enamel on the bottoms of my teeth. It's so involuntary that it didn't dawn on me until later that the clacking probably did this.

I think these are sure signs that we're meant to be drummers!

[drummerchick435]

I tap all the time...drives everyone crazy.

[foursticks]

Yep I'm big offender right here, can't help tapping my left foot along to music (looks like a nervous twitch), playing rhythms on various surfaces. It's just part of being a drummer I guess.

[Deathmetalconga]

I do it all the time too. People think I'm nervous - anything but!

[Class A Drummer]

It happens. If you are a drummer you gotta live with it. It is not a curse, it is actually a blessing in disguise. If you do not realize this, you are actually getting practice out of it, thus probably slightly increasing your ability over time.

[aydee]

I agree with DMC and Zam... the world thinks its a nervous condition. Of course it isnt....

[TheGroceryman]

Yea i tap all the time, throughout my school career many teachers have sent me out of class for "disrupting the class." But some have cherished it, they understand my desire for making music, pretty cool people. And its something about science teachers that dont like drumming, every single one of them from 6th grade through 11th all the science hated my tapping...

[drovja]

I'm right in there too, since I was about 6, which was about 5 years before I ever picked up drumsticks.

[aruration]

Yeap I do it and I've got tons of "Stop it" too. When I sit down I always play some double bass and practise heel toe technique. Also sometimes when I'm eating something crunchy that makes noise, I like to chew it in a rhythm. Oh and when I am in the W.C. I usually tap. Fortunately my parents have got used to it, but some friends, cousins and even people I've just met, complain about it. But I can't help it.

[aydee]

Eating in rhythm , now that you mention it, is also something I've done if something really nice is playing

[rmandelbaum]

So here is a funny story, I work for a major software company, for 9 years I was what is called a pre- sales system engineer. Part of what I did was to go out with sale reps to customers and help with deals. So one of my dearest friends is a kick butt drummer, she went to PIT and has a degree in music. She also happened at this time to be one of the sales reaps I worked with. So here we are sitting in a meeting with very high level people and I realize we are both tapping to the same groove playing off of each other. We looked at each other smiled and stopped.

[drumbandit]

I play paradiddles with my teeth by moving them side to side
Tapping desks and feet always gets me in trouble as well. Last year'd GCSE exams I got told by the invidulator that if I didn't stop I'd be sent out.

[Mapex589]

It's great to know there are others. I have been told to "stop it" for years by just about everybody in my life. I had to laugh when I read your thread because I can so relate. There is always some appendage moving....if someone tells me to stop tapping my fingers my foot starts going or my knee begins to bounce. What can I say.....I'm a drummer!!

[aydee]

So here is a funny story, I work for a major software company, for 9 years I was what is called a pre- sales system engineer. Part of what I did was to go out with sale reps to customers and help with deals. So one of my dearest friends is a kick butt drummer, she went to PIT and has a degree in music. She also happened at this time to be one of the sales reaps I worked with. So here we are sitting in a meeting with very high level people and I realize we are both tapping to the same groove playing off of each other. We looked at each other smiled and stopped.

Thats like a drummers secret code. Funny story..

[radiofriendlyunitshifter]

i told my girlfriend to read this thread so she would understand that it isn't just me.

[bonzolead]

I remember being in 3rd grade and my 3rd grade teacher telling my mom to send me too school with just ONE pencil not two and when I got my first car with a air-bag I was afraid the air-bag would go off I know the sensor is in the grille but I thought it would explode anyway.I think anybody with drumming in their soul has rhythm's going though their head all the time when I was a kid I would sit down and my knee's would be the toms my left thigh would be the snare and my right thigh would be the floor-tom weard isn't. it.

Bonzolead

[zambizzi]

OK, now it's time to fess up...

Who spent as much time as I did rockin' the air-drums as I did? I did this quite a bit...as no one would pony-up the dough to buy me a kit when I was a kid.

I was 12 when the Zep box set came out...I bought it w/ all the cash I could muster up...and I air-drummed every Bonzo lick on every disk. Not surprisingly, once I bought a kit, not all of that translated to real playing on an actual, physical drum set. :(

[nebula821]

I actually have to supress this urge occasionally so I don't drive my wife nuts. I never stop tapping otherwise, unless I'm really tired.

[aydee]

i told my girlfriend to read this thread so she would understand that it isn't just me.

lol,yes.. its a world full of thigh -slappin', finger tappin' wackos going about their business paradiddling through life

[Erik Lund]

If I'm at a bar by myself - I will drum to the music all the time...

But I have developed the even-more-annoying habbit of: The Super-Clap.

Clap your right hand to your left and then your left to the right. repeat ad nauseum (and build up your speed)

[That Guy]

People have gone as far as threatening me with violence becuase of my tapping. Others have said that I'm retarded. Back in elementary school, a teacher actually tied my hands behind my back and put me in the corner... couldn't stop my feet though :-)

[Big_Philly]

I also tap a lot... makes awkward silences even more uncomfortable, it's great for getting rid of unwanted guests really...

[aydee]

I also tap a lot... makes awkward silences even more uncomfortable, it's great for getting rid of unwanted guests really...

I'm accused of always being distracted..not focused. I'm not. I'm just practicing songo on my thighs and talking to the girl about our weekend plans. Independence excercise...

[Big_Philly]

I'm accused of always being distracted..not focused. I'm not. I'm just practicing songo on my thighs and talking to the girl about our weekend plans. Independence excercise...

I know what you mean... :D

[ghuyuiq]

I'm glad some guys and girls in class like my drumming... I teach them doubles between hands and feet and stuff like that:p... When you play all togheter, teachers freak out!! Unfortunatly that's only 10 people out of 25, the others like to pay attention and hate that... Also, people have told me I tap in my sleep sometimes...

[Rich]

A few months back, the owner of the office downstairs came up to ask what all the banging was about coming from this floor.... I hadn't realised that my imaginary kick drum resonated so badly through the floor...

[YamahaDrummerAus]

Back when I first started drums, I asked my teacher when he started playing. He said: "In year 8. I would tap on the tables all the time and my teacher would always tell me off!"

9 years later. This year I walked into my first english class with my new teacher, who is also the headmaster of the secondary school. Within 5 mins of walking in and sitting down, she told me off for tapping on the tables.

It IS a drummer thing.

Tom

[GRUNTERSDAD]

I was just mimiced on the elevator for tapping on a box. I said I had to practice and be glad I don't play a saxophone.

[PineyplayParadiddles]

I cant stop tapping either. Its bad at school, I'm constantly tapping out rudiments, triplets between hands and feet etc. I also got badly yelled when I was teaching the whole class how to spin pens and pencils like drumsticks. It would wind up my Spanish teacher so badly........Good times!

[stoopid]

i tend to not do it while i'm busy
but when i get particularly bored i start banging on my desk and tapping my foot wihtout even realizing that i might be annoying because i'm thinking out a beat and its actually kinda fun, but someone always turns around and yells at me (especially teachers who say i am being annoying by it, which is weird because i'm usually pretty chill but i guess that tapping is just a habit of mine when i get boredand i dont notice it much)

but no one appreciates my desk slapping solos as much as me so i try to refrain from doing it loudly, such as after someone tells me to stop i continue but at such a low volume that i can barely hear it

[bears_eating_drums]

Yeah I know exactly what you guys are talking about, almost everything I do has to be percussive in some way, opening doors, walking down stairs, sometimes when I turn on light switches I do this tapping thing with my fingers even. It doesnt seem to annoy other people that much, but when I hear other people doing it (like this one guitarist I jam with) it annoys the hell out of me!

[rmandelbaum]

I actually flip the turn indicator in my truck in time, I hear rhythm in anything, my dryer is running right now and I hear a rhythm.

Face it we can't avoid, if we could we would be guitarists ;-)

[aydee]

..I know what you mean about hearing rhythms in dryers. If my dog is panting, I'm trying to listen for the accents in the pants : )